Prepping ‘Preppy’

So-called “Preppy Killer” Robert E. Chambers Jr.--who pleaded guilty last year in the strangulation death of Jennifer Levin in Central Park in 1986--is the subject of dueling docudramas: “The Preppy Murder,” a two-hour TV movie for ABC, is currently casting, with filming to begin in NYC in August. Meanwhile, a script for a (yet untitled) four-hour CBS miniseries has been approved, though production has yet to be given the green light.

Acknowledging that his ABC project will be the first out of the gate, exec producer Jack Grossbart said that rights were bought from some of the police detectives involved in the case, and “a great many of Robert and Jennifer’s friends.” Investigative reporter Sydell Albert, who brought the rights to Grossbart, is co-producing. Court transcripts are also being used to tell the story “of kids who live a life without margin,” Grossbart said.

Director John Herzfeld said he has spoken with “many of the key players involved” and stressed that this project “will definitely not” glamorize the handsome and media-savvy Chambers, who is serving five to 15 years. (“To say he was glamorized by the media is a major understatement,” scoffed Herzfeld.)

As for the CBS miniseries, from MGM-TV and producers Diane and Mel Sokolow: “Our project will examine the sociological implications of kids that have it so good and go so bad . . . rich kids who are fast, loose and floundering,” said Sokolow.

Scripted by JP Miller (“Helter Skelter”), it’s based on Linda Wolfe’s upcoming hard-cover book, “Wasted: The Story of Robert and Jennifer” (due in August from Simon & Shuster). Sokolow called the book “the definitive Chambers-Levin study--which would make ours the definitive TV project.”